Hans Bender

Hans Bender ( born February 5, 1907 in Freiburg im Breisgau, † May 7, 1991 ) was a German parapsychologist.

Life

After his graduation in 1925, he studied in Lausanne and Paris law. In 1927 he moved over to Freiburg, Heidelberg and Berlin to study psychology, philosophy and romance. From 1929 he studied in Bonn with Erich Rothacker (psychology ) and Ernst Robert Curtius (Romance ). After the " seizure of power" of the Nazis, he was in 1933 shortly member of the SA. In the same year he received his doctorate with a thesis Rothacker Mental automatisms. In addition to his position as an assistant at the Institute of Psychology, University of Bonn Bender graduated from a medical school, which was to him in view of his controversial research interest giving a greater reputation. For his claim that he in 1939 " The working curve under Pervitin " in medicine with Kurt Beringer doctorate after his medical state examination and its approval in Freiburg with a thesis, he did not demonstrate by presenting the doctoral diploma. Even to this remedy, he wrote in a later age again a medical dissertation.

In 1937 Bender of the NSDAP. In 1939, he worked as a volunteer at the Psychiatric Clinic in Freiburg and inside. Since he was unfit for military service due to health reasons, he could represent the beginning of 1940 from the chair of his teacher confiscated Rothacker in Bonn, from September, he also worked in the Bonn Clinic for Internal Medicine. In June of the same year he married Henriette Wiechert, the "Star - subject " of his dissertation, which there under the pseudonyms " Miss Dora D. " or " Miss D. " changed its name.

To be able to answer the call as associate professor at the newly established after the occupation of France Reich University of Strasbourg, Bender was in 1941 in a summary trial at the University of Bonn Experimental work with visions. A contribution to the problem of illusion, the reality of consciousness and layers of personality habilitation. On the intervention of the organizer of the Strasbourg University kingdom out of the historian Ernst Anrich, prompted the Reich Ministry for Science, Education, and Culture that Bender mandatory for habilitation teaching performance has been imposed. 1942 to 1944 he taught in Strasbourg next psychology and clinical psychology, psychology of nations and Frontier Areas of Psychology. At the same time, he headed the Paracelsus Institute, where Bender actually wanted to conduct research on astrology. But the request of the patron Frederick Spieser he moved then to work on dowsing. In addition to teaching, he worked with the SS - Ahnenerbe.

After his internment in a British camp from November 1944 until July 1945 he went to Freiburg back in Breisgau, where he obtained a lectureship in psychology received at the university and next to it in 1950 to be a non-university Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Hygiene founded eV. In 1957 he founded the Journal of Parapsychology and Border Areas of Psychology.

From 1946 to 1949 he occupied the Chair of Psychology and Education and then worked as a lecturer diet. After visiting professor in 1951 and 1954 at first, he was appointed associate professor for Frontier Areas of Psychology, 1967 Professor of Psychology and Frontier Areas of Psychology, with parapsychology in teaching accounting for a quarter of the circumference. 1975 Bender was given emeritus status.

In 1977, journalists of the mirror realized that no copy of his medical thesis was raise and Bender also was unable to demonstrate doctoral certificate, the prosecution initiated proceedings for incorrect titles management. The criminal investigation found that the title was done wrongly. A later was promotion at Manfred Müller- Küppers, with whom he had worked in hauntings, Bender made ​​it possible to perform MD unopposed from then on that basis.

Research and action

Bender was formed deep psychological and oriented primarily at the approaches of Pierre Janet and Carl Gustav Jung. It follows on the one hand, that he made ​​use of qualitative rather than quantitative methods. On the other hand, he represented within parapsychology as opposed to the " spiritualist " a " animistic " approach, which means in the context of this subject, that he did not interpret paranormal phenomena as interference by spirits, but as a result of great mental tension of the phenomenon triggering person, the so-called " focus person ". In this context he combined experiments with sensitives with studies of affective attitude toward parapsychology and neurotic poor posture in terms of parapsychological phenomena. An important concept Benders is the uniformity of the occult, that is, the fact that reports of phenomena such as telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, psychokinesis, ghosts and since ancient times to the present day in all periods and in diverse cultures and regions of the world. Bender interpreted this as an important argument that these phenomena objective, though still unknown properties of reality would be based.

Another characteristic of his work consisted in close contact with astrologers, such as Thomas Ring, with whom he was a close friend and of which he was also possible to advise themselves both personally and scientifically astrologically. In addition, he was convinced that his wife would be with him in telepathic relationships. So not only his subject and his close contact with the mass media took him in for criticism, but also its sometimes even in the eyes of his assistants are not always careful research that once something left him in doubt in seemingly inexplicable experiences paranormal suspect. So he declared in 1982 Spukfall " Chopper", the proven a dental assistant in a dental practice in Neutraubling near Regensburg manipulated, opposite the magazine Die Aktuelle premature for real. On the other hand, Bender noted, however before " Choppers " unmasking out if it really amounts to a paranormal phenomenon in it, this is totally atypical.

His critics accused him already before, to have overlooked tampering focus its people. So the Kriminaldirektor Herbert Schäfer from the State Criminal Investigation Department in Bremen in 1978 procured a confession, the focus person in 1965 by Bender declared as genuine Spukfall " Heinrich Scholz ". The former apprentice of a Bremen porcelain shop would not only have all Spukphänomene in the store, but also in the subsequent investigation in Benders Freiburg laboratory, manipulated deliberately. Benders wizard countered with expert opinions, which should prove that at least some of the manipulations described by Scholz could not have taken place.

The problem of manipulation is also known Spukfall Benders, the "Haunted by Rosenheim " in a law practice in the years 1967 and 1968, which not only Bender and his staff, but also technicians of mail and the power company, police and Physicists at the Max Planck Institute in Munich documented. Although the physicist in its opinion on the one hand explained that some of the established means of experimental physics phenomena could not be explained by the theoretical physics, settled in one case, the manipulation by the focus person, an office worker, prove. Bender and his assistants explain the manipulation of them in a validated hauntings in that help out the mentally unstable often focus people when the real phenomena fail to continue to be the center of attention.

Honors

Writings (selection )

  • Occultism as a problem of mental hygiene. In: New Science. Journal of border areas of mental life. Vol 1 (1950 ), No. 3, pp. 34-42.
  • For the development of parapsychology from 1930-1950. In: Hans Driesch: parapsychology. The science of the " occult " phenomena. 3rd edition. Rascher Verlag, Zurich 1952, pp. 135-176.
  • Occultism as spiritual danger. In: Maria Pfister- Ammende (ed.): Mental Hygiene. Research and risk ( Mental Hygiene, 12). Schwabe Verlag, Basel 1955, pp. 489-499.
  • Precognition in qualitative experiment. On the methodology of the " space experiments " with the sensitives Gerard Croiset. In: Journal of Parapsychology and Border Areas of Psychology. Vol 1 (1957 /58), ISSN 0028-3479, pp. 5-35.
  • Para Mental phenomena as a scientific frontier question. In: Freiburger This Universitatis. Vol 6 (1957 /58), pp. 59-84.
  • Mediumistic psychoses. A contribution to the pathology of spiritualist practices. In: Journal of Parapsychology and Border Areas of Psychology, Vol 2 (1958/1959), ISSN 0028-3479, pp. 173-200.
  • On the question of the telepathic dream. In: Hans Thomae (ed.): Report on the 22th Congress of the German Society for Psychology Psychologie.Verlag Hogrefe, Göttingen 1960, pp. 276-280.
  • " Precognition " in dream series I. In: Journal of Parapsychology and Border Areas of Psychology. Vol 4 (1960 /61), ISSN 0028-3479, pp. 114-198 ( together with Johannes Mischo ).
  • " Precognition " in Dream Series II In: Journal of Parapsychology and Border Areas of Psychology. Vol 5 (1961 ), ISSN 0028-3479, pp. 10-47 ( together with Johannes Mischo ).
  • Forms the setting for parapsychology. In: Journal of Parapsychology and Border Areas of Psychology. Vol 7 (1964 ), ISSN 0028-3479, pp. 85-92.
  • Astrology and superstition. In: New Science. Journal of border areas of mental life. Vol 12 (1964 ), No. 1, pp. 1-23.
  • Erich Rothacker ( 1888-1965 ). In: Journal of Parapsychology and Border Areas of Psychology. Vol 9 (1966 ), ISSN 0028-3479, pp. 149f.
  • New developments in Spukforschung. In: Journal of Parapsychology and Border Areas of Psychology. Vol 12 (1966 ), ISSN 0028-3479, pp. 1-18.
  • Telepathy and clairvoyance as a scientific border issues. In: . Schopenhauer Yearbook 1967 Vol 48 (1966 ), ISSN 0080-6935, pp. 36-52.
  • A prosecutor in front of the " uncanny ". In: Journal of Parapsychology and Border Areas of Psychology. Vol 12 (1970), ISSN 0028-3479, pp. 255-259 ( together with Johannes Mischo ).
  • Psycho Hygienic and forensic aspects of parapsychology. In: G. Condreau (ed.): The Psychology of the 20th Century, Vol 15, Zurich 1979, p 651-672.
  • W. H. C. Tenhaeff ( 1894-1981 ). In: Journal of Parapsychology and Border Areas of Psychology, Vol 23 (1981 ), ISSN 0028-3479, pp. 231-236.
  • A positive critic of superstition. In: Rosemarie Pilkington (ed.): The Men and Women of Parapsychology. Personal reflections. McFarland Books, Jefferson, N.C. 1987, ISBN 0-89950-260-1, pp. 114-118.
  • Mental automatisms. For the experimental psychology of the unconscious and of extrasensory perception. Barth, Leipzig 1936 ( zugl. dissertation, University of Bonn, 1933).
  • On the problem of extra-sensory perception. A contribution to the study of spatial clairvoyance ' with laboratory methods. JA Barth, Leipzig, 1936 ( with a foreword by Erich Rudolf Jaensch )
  • Essays on parapsychology. Piper Verlag, Munich 1983.
  • Our sixth sense: telepathy, clairvoyance, Spooky. Goldmann Verlag, Munich 1981, ISBN 3-442-11724-7 ( ISBN formally wrong ).
  • Dealing with the occult. Aurum -Verlag, Freiburg / B. 1984, ISBN 3-591-08196-5.
  • Parapsychology. Development, results and problems. 4th edition. University Press, Darmstadt 1974, ISBN 3-534-00628-3. ( Avenues of research, and 4)
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